hecyk

Hi bikeforum,

I hope I am not posting on the wrong sub category. So I have been commuting on a cheap bike which I got for free which is but obviously have some flaws. The bike's seat is not "adjustable", problems with changing gears, pedal leg thingy has fallen off and so on. Currently the bike is punctured as well and I don't feel like dealing with it anymore and want an upgrade.
My commuting route is 10 km / 6 miles and it might become 15 km / 9 miles next year and I will be carrying a bag. The road is a pretty much a flat road with some small inclines here and there.

I have been mostly been looking at road bikes, or should I have been looking at something else? I currently got my eyes on the btwin serie 500 and 520 since they have gotten very favourable reviews and the bikes on sale at chainreactioncycle.
Decathlon road bikes ? a buyer?s guide to the B?Twin range | road.cc
Clearance*Road Bikes | Chain Reaction Cycles

My budget limit is 650 usd / 600 euro. Another concern is I will be parking it on a open area at my university so I'm afraid of bike thieves.

Thank you

Papa Tom

Get ready for a barrage of recommendations that will make your head spin!

Everybody is going to want to get you on the same bike they have, just because the "best" bike is always the one you've ridden and the one you have modified and made your own.

That said, for me, the solution is a lightly-used 1990's steel mountain bike fitted with a rear rack for panniers (carry bags) that are easily removable when you get to campus. These have become quite desirable with commuters here in New York and, I think, in other places as well. Check your local Craig's List.

I, personally, do not find "road bikes," (which, to me, is any bike with a curled handlebar) useful for commuting unless you're riding a much longer distance than the 6-9 miles you described and need to dig in for a good part of the trip. And if you will be riding on dirt, in snow, etc at any time, the wide tires you can put on a mountain bike will make the ride much smoother.

OK, so now I have narrowed your options down to about 10,000 choices, of which subsequent posters will surely have lots of helpful opinions. Good luck!

mark2810

Like the man said above, everyone is going to give you their opinions.

Before you do anything, buy a good U-lock and cable. You do not.. want your baby getting stolen. Bike theft in my area is insane. Look up Sheldon Brown's locking up method. Do it for your ease of mind. Definitely get a U-lock. A cable lock is not enough.

As you said, and my personal opinion, get a road bike if you're looking for a commuter. They roll the fastest. You can decide how comfortable you want to be depending on the type of road bike you get, hybrid with flat bars or actual road bike with drop downs..
Mountain bike wouldn't be ideal because it will slow you down on the road, plus they're heavy. meh.

If you want to go with comfort, get a hybrid bike and buy ergo grips from ebay if it didn't come with them already.
If you want speed, flair, and looks while sacrificing a little bit of comfort get a road bike with drop downs.

**My .02 cents in buying new in your price range:

Hybrids - Specialized Sirrus, Trek 7.1/7.2/7.3.... Fx series, Giant Escape

Road-
Specialized Allez, Trek Alpha, Giant OCR

Though MY HONEST OPINION, get a bike from Craigslist. It'll do you much better to get a high quality bike for a used price then buying a brand new bike with "meh" components. Not to mention, it'll save you money.
I bought myself a '04 Bianchi Veloce full veloce campy for 350 off Craigslist. My girlfriend a 47 CM Tiagra Cannondale Synapse in MINT condition for 480. A beautiful orange Torelli Corsa Strada (ultegras) for 350 with original ksyriums.
My brother a week or two ago bought a 2013 CAAD8 WITH COSMICS ON THERE+the original wheelset FOR 500 AND WITH SPEEDPLAYS. 500 DOLLARS.
Some rich old engineer guy who just wanted to get rid of the bike. SERIOUSLY 500 BUCKS FOR THAT.


Actually I'm about to buy myself an older CAAD 8 on CL later on today with Ksyriums for 400. Going to update my roubaix with ultegras ;]
CL is CRAZY and I love it. Live and die from it.

Get a nice steel road bike from the 90's with a decent pair of brifters on there. God steel frames are so sexy. Lugs are even sexier. I think the best bikes are bikes that look classy. Not the newer ones with all the extra paint, thick tubes, decals and all the crap going on. Again, my .02 cents.

I suggest you look at CL though. Post the bikes/links that you're considering and get recommendations. We'll point you the right way regardless of our different tastes.

10 Wheels

Get one that will take 700 X 28 tires and find a place to keep the bike inside at school

bikemig 

+ 1 you will get a lot of different ideas and +1 if you want to save money, you cannot beat a used vintage mountain bike. They're cheap, they take a reasonably sized tire (useful for commuting esp. in bad weather), and it's easy mounting racks, fenders, lights etc. Plus buying an inexpensive used bike will force you to learn some basic mechanical skills.

If the commute is longish, drop bars start to make more sense.

wphamilton

One thing to keep in mind is that commuting boils down to a bike ride, just like any other bike ride. If you're a mountain bike guy you commute on a mtb. Racer types like to train on racing bikes. Anything you'd ride that distance is a commuting bike. My first advice is always to get the bike that you're going to ride, as opposed to any idea of "commuter bike" - it's just a bike ride.

The only things special about commuting is that you may tend to do it in weather that you might not venture out it for fun or training, you might do it in darkness, and it's usually (not always) a shorter ride. There are various ways of dealing with those factors, which may or may have to do with the bike itself.

avidone1

there are so many of these "which bike is best" type posts.
I agree that most people are going to tell you that their bike is best.
After all, how many want to admit that they spent hundreds or thousands of dollars on the 'wrong' bike
My advice is don't be afraid to plunge into the scary world of local bike shops. Tell them what you want the bike for,
test ride their suggestions, do the same in as many shops as you can.
Then when you've settled on a few 'finalists', come back to bike forums.
You will still get people advocating for 'their' bike, but you will have some personal experience to help you decide.

hecyk

Thank you for all the replies and suggestions and now I realised there is just no simple answer to this question. My local bike shops have some significant markups on their bikes and I would feel bad to just use their services without intention of buying anything.
Many have suggested I will be window shopping at my local craigs list and will expand my search to include pretty much most bike types to see if I might find a good deal. My head is already spinning when I saw there are literally a thousand sales post and am kinda feeling more lost about which bike to get before I posted haha.
Right now I am googling every single bike name and comparing to their retail price, is there a better way? And how do I know if I'm overpaying for a vintage bike?

mark2810

Reply back with postings from the bikes you think you're interested in and then we will give you a good price for it.
There are thousands of members here and I think we will all have a general idea of how much the bike you're interested in should be, regardless if you're rural or in suburbia.

This is truly one of the best website forums that I've discovered. Everyone is very helpful. Big props to everyone for being so eager to lend a helping hand.

Yay bikes.

dim

for commuting, especially if there is traffic/cars, and for the distance you travel, get a hybrid such as a Trek FX

chasm54

Daft advice, frankly. Not that there's anything wrong with a hybrid, but there's no particular reason why it's more suitable than other types of bike, and the fact that there are cars around is irrelevant to the choice. You think road bikes aren't ridden in traffic?

wphamilton

That's the problem with Craigs List unless you already know what's a high quality vintage bike and what's just an old mass-produced one. I'd do the same thing you are and google everything I could, but I mostly find that people wanting retail for the latter type. I'd be tempted to hit some yard sales, if they have them this time of year.

Posting the ads here or C&V, someone could probably tell you. Or give your location, I've seen sometimes where BF vintage experts will check the local CL and make suggestions.

TenSpeedV2

While that is a good bike, it is no better in traffic or at a distance than any of the bikes that I ride. For the terrain and distance the OP mentioned, what about a singlespeed? Easy to maintain, less to worry about, seems like a good fit.

dim

thats my recomendation .... we all have our own opinions

I prefer flat bars in very heavy traffic especially through a city with very narrow roads and loads of busses/heavy vehicles (such as Cambridge where I live)

Papa Tom

And now, hecyk, you will watch this thread deteriorate into a verbal pissing contest. See what you have done???

asmac

How about this:

1. If you want to use a rack and panniers (a good idea, imho) make sure your bike has the right braze-ons
2. If you want to ride in rain make sure you can easily attach fenders (i.e. the right braze-ons)
3. Bigger tires are more comfortable and better for dealing with rough roads and potholes
4. Suspension forks are heavy, absorb pedaling energy and are unnecessary on roads and groomed trails
5. Since you'll (presumably) be riding in traffic make sure you can easily access the brakes in your normal riding position

fietsbob

I suggest picking the bike shop you like first then getting your bike from that shoppe.

Aubergine 

I also am a fan of the early "mountain bikes", which are the ones without suspension. They typically are sturdy and inexpensive, have eyelets for mounting fenders and a rack, and don't stand out as worth stealing. I set up such a bike for a friend who used it to tour from Seattle down into Mexico. It cost us about 200€ all told, including new tires that were more suitable for touring. He loved that bike.

hecyk

I just remembered my dad owns an old school mountain bike or something similar and I borrowed it once when my bike's brakes failed. The riding experience was absolutely astonishing, probably because I have always ridden cheap supermarket bikes. I exerted less force while riding faster than my old bike. Perhaps I could convice him to sell it to me since I haven't seen him ride a bike for a while
Otherwise I have found these bikes so far:


Hybrid?
https://www.dba.dk/herrecykel-cube-cr...id-1019830156/
580 $

Road:
https://www.dba.dk/herrecykel-trek-15...id-1017518149/
580 $ - Includes the bags.

https://www.dba.dk/dameracer-ghost-ac...id-1019184990/
580 $

https://www.dba.dk/herreracer-princip...id-1017935442/
580 $ - 13 years old and has Shimano Ultegra 10

vintage:
Herreracer, Fondriest Megalu ? dba.dk ? Køb og Salg af Nyt og Brugt
580 $ - Got shimano 105 and Mavic sub CXP 30 wheels

Old school MTB:
https://www.dba.dk/centurion-citybike-49/id-1021134486/
145 $

Univega 700 SE alu, hardtail ? dba.dk ? Køb og Salg af Nyt og Brugt
175 usd

Specialized, anden ? dba.dk ? Køb og Salg af Nyt og Brugt
435 $

Specialized Rockhopper ? dba.dk ? Køb og Salg af Nyt og Brugt
366 $

TenSpeedV2

Hands down that second Trek if it fits you. Get all of that, plus disc brakes? Win.

Leisesturm

Only in America does half of the roadgoing public use equipment designed for use off-road and consider that a best practice. Is there a headsmack emoticon on this forum? I see petite women in office dress piloting massive SUV's, a single wheel of which requires 10 horsepower just to overcome static inertia. This makes sense? I flatted once on the inbound leg of my suburban commute, and while changing out the tube I was passed by a fair assortment of other commuters, and the number of them that were riding on full knobbies... ... that whine you hear from your knobbies... ... that's energy. Your energy.

If you don't have any better use for VO2 max than heating up air molecules can I have some? Please? I'm at the age where energy matters. My wife... ... never mind... people, they call them mountain bikes for a good reason. If the highest gear on your commuter is 78 gear inches you just might be having a sub-par commuting experience. You don't have to have drop bars. Plenty of road bikes have flat bars. But they will "usually" have longer cranks, higher gearing, narrower rims and tires and that's HUGE.

The corporate types that drive Hummers have mainly higher fuel costs to illustrate their impracticality. The price to a bike commuter is more physically direct. Newbies don't know that. They read these forums and go out and perpetuate the madness. If I keep even one newbie who is on the fence over what kind of bike to use from rushing out and putting another full knobby, under-geared and over weight MTB relic from the early 1990's on the road, I can go to my final reward with my head high and my conscience clear. FWIW.

Papa Tom

Funny response, Leisesturm, but I think you are taking the recommendation to use an old MTB as a recommendation to use it with its original knobby tires. I have used all types of "slick" tires on my 1996 GT Outpost from a 1.5" Specialized Nimbus to a 2.25" Schwalbe Big Apple. While I don't mind (and kind of enjoy) riding on the road with knobbies, I wouldn't recommend it for someone with a decent length commute. For my 3-mile ride to work, I have found the fatter slick to provide a superior (and not noticeably slower or more strenuous) ride. I do understand that a bona fide road bike might get me to work quicker, but I don't really enjoy work all that much. And I wouldn't want to give up the comfort and conveniences (lots of accommodations for panniers, lights, etc) that my faithful old MTB provides.

Chris Chicago

How is tall are you?

alan s 

You don't say where you are from, but if it's anywhere that it rains, get a bike that will take fenders, and I like using a rack and bag rather than a backpack. Other than that, any used bike from one of the main companies (Trek, Specialized, Giant, etc.) in decent condition and that fits should be fine. Best advice I can give is find a friend who knows about bikes and is willing to help you out.

hecyk

Hi everyone,


I have talked with my dad and he is going to donate his old bike to me since he doesn't ride it anymore The bike is definitely an upgrade from what I have ridden before and according to him, the bike is pannier compatible and already has fenders installed. Plus this saves me a big chunk of cash of which I could use to buy sleek tires but I'd rather wait till I have tried the knobby ones.
Thank you very much for all your replies and insights. Reading all your responses of what is a good commuter bike from various perspective was very interesting.